Major pipeline proposal continues to raise questions

Company could be allowed to take property by eminent domain

Following a record-breaking winter that brought exorbitant heating costs, many people agree that it's time to find a solution to the Northeast's energy shortage. But is the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal the answer?

Alarms started to sound in southern New Hampshire just before Christmas last year when plans for a major natural gas pipeline shifted from northern Massachusetts into the Granite State.

Following a record-breaking winter that brought exorbitant heating costs, many people agree that it's time to find a solution to the Northeast's energy shortage. But is the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal the answer?

If Kinder Morgan gets the FERC certificate -- which seems likely, because the FERC rarely rejects an application -- the company is authorized to take easement land by eminent domain for the pipeline. The company said that rarely happens, citing a 90 percent negotiation success rate.

"We are happy to have individual, one-on-one discussions with any landowner that wants one," Kinder Morgan spokesman Allen Fore said. "Transparency is important. I know, particularly in New Hampshire, it's important, and people want answers to their specific questions."

Company officials said the Northeast Energy Direct project is still in flux, so the map could change, but the proposed path of the pipe would go from western Massachusetts into Winchester and across Rindge, Merrimack and Nashua before dropping south into Dracut, Massachusetts, where it would connect with the main transmission line that goes into Canada.

The company said it tries to negotiate for a 50-foot easement at a reported one-time payment of $36 per linear foot.

"They wouldn't tell us what grade pipe they're using," Miner said. "There's a 1, 2 and 3. The 3 is the stronger pipe, which is for highly populated areas."

Eminent domain raises the ire of landowners, who packed information meetings in Mason and Merrimack. State lawmakers quickly moved to pass House Bill 572, which would empower property owners to demand that the company purchase the entire tract of land, even if only a portion is needed for the project.

The legislation awaits a vote in the Senate, and it's not clear if the state law would hold up against federal regulations.

Miner opposes the pipeline project but said it's possible he would sell to Kinder Morgan.

"It's not so much the money," he said. "If they want to buy the house, we'll sell the house and we'll move on, because I don't want to be next to a pipeline."

The pipeline is described by company officials as a toll road bringing natural gas into the region from Pennsylvania. Distributors would pay for capacity on the pipe.

Liberty Utilities is the largest natural gas provider in New Hampshire, with 87,000 customers, and the only state company that signed a contract with Kinder Morgan. Liberty and a Kinder Morgan operating unit have formed a new joint entity to build and own the proposed pipeline.

Skeptics said they believe most of the natural gas is slated for export, likely to Canada.

"This gas isn't even for us," pipeline opponent Maryann Harper said. "We're not going to get gas in Rindge. There's no way. We don't have town water. We don't have town sewer. We don't have cable TV. We are not getting natural gas in Rindge."

"We have no contracts now for (liquid natural gas) export, but the possibility exists in the future," Fore said.

The project has been a tough sell to many of the nearly 1,000 property owners who are in the path of the pipe, but Granite Staters struggling to pay heating bills said it's time to get realistic about the Northeast energy crisis.

The push-and-pull will continue for several months. Kinder Morgan hopes to break ground in 2017, but the company's website says that route approval and federal certification are ongoing.